


heart is your arcade

by playedwright



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cooking, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Everyone lives/Nobody dies, Fluff, Gamer Eddie Kaspbrak, M/M, Slice of Life, eddie discusses resident evil 7, once again just smile and nod, the author doesn't actually know anything about resident evil 7, the logistics r not important as 2 how just smile and nod :), video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/playedwright/pseuds/playedwright
Summary: Eddie brandishes the video game proudly, like a second grader might show off a good grade on a test.“Resident Evil 7,” Richie reads. “I thought you hated the Resident Evil franchise.”“No, I just hated the last two releases, because they sucked,” Eddie says. He flips the cover back to himself and looks over it with a critical eye. “Plus all the spin-offs have been total ass, but this is re-inventing the franchise, so it’s better. We’re excited about this one.”Richie nods along, encouraging. “If you say so. Hey, can you hand me the pumpkin?”
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 7
Kudos: 109





	heart is your arcade

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmologier (cowsbark)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cowsbark/gifts).



> so [andy](https://twitter.com/cosmologier) asked me to whip something up with domestic, established reddie and excited gamer eddie and i was happy to rise to the challenge :') thank you, andy!!
> 
> also special shout out to [rants](https://twitter.com/rorschachisgay) who gave me the basis for everything that eddie says in this fic since i have not touched a video game since playing mario kart on the wii :) thank u homie this would be so much more vague without u xoxo
> 
> thank u for reading!!

Richie’s leaning over a saucepan when the front door gets kicked open and Eddie comes tumbling inside loudly.

“Are we being robbed?” Richie asks mildly, more focused on the cream he’s pouring into his pan. Eddie lets out an excited shout that echoes around the walls of their house before the sound is replaced by the slamming of the front door and Eddie’s fast-paced walk towards the kitchen.

“It’s here,” Eddie says, a little bit breathless, and he waves a package in Richie’s face. He drops the package onto the counter so he can grab a handful of Richie’s shirt and tug him in for a quick, thorough kiss. It's a habit, now. Coming home and greeting each other with a kiss. Never a peck, always something that makes Richie’s toes curl. He lifts his saucepan off the stove before the sauce can burn.

Eddie looks smug when he pulls away. He smooths Richie’s shirt back down before picking his package back up and sitting on the counter, in the same place where he’d put it before. Eddie pulls the scissors out of the knife block to open the package.

“Those are for food,” Richie protests, but Eddie shushes him. Richie just sighs, and turns back to his sauce. “What’s here, then?”

Eddie brandishes the video game proudly, like a second grader might show off a good grade on a test.

“Resident Evil 7,” Richie reads. “I thought you hated the Resident Evil franchise.”

“No, I just hated the last two releases, because they sucked,” Eddie says. He flips the cover back to himself and looks over it with a critical eye. “Plus all the spin-offs have been total ass, but this is re-inventing the franchise, so it’s  _ better.  _ We’re  _ excited  _ about this one.”

Richie nods along, encouraging. “If you say so. Hey, can you hand me the pumpkin?”

Eddie passes the bowl to him, and Richie scoops the contents into his saucepan and starts stirring again. “I’ve been on Reddit, and the response already is, like, insane. People are really impressed. And they’ve switched the perspective, I mean. Resident Evil games are, like, exclusively third-person shooters. Which isn’t terrible, but the point gets redundant after a while, you know? But this one switches to a first person perspective so it really drops you right into the heart of the horror.”

“Chicken broth, please,” Richie asks, and Eddie passes him the measuring cup full of broth without looking up. “Hold up, this is a horror video game? Was, like, last year and also our childhood not horrifying enough?”

“Because your obsession with the  _ Saw  _ movies is totally normal and also not weird considering our history,” Eddie shoots back.

Richie shrugs. He adds another quarter cup of broth to his pasta sauce slowly and stirs. “Could be worse. Could be  _ Killer Clowns from Outer Space,  _ right?”

“Beep beep.”

“You would go on Reddit to read reviews before playing the game for yourself,” Richie says.

Eddie lifts his leg so he can dig his toes into Richie’s side, drawing a yelp out of Richie. He grins back innocently when Richie turns to him, and he laughs when Richie sticks out his tongue. “I like to know what I’m getting into before I waste my money!”

“You could have asked literally anyone to buy the game for you,” Richie says. “Swear to god you’re never going to get a birthday or Christmas present that isn’t a video game. You’re gonna turn our spare bedroom into your gaming room.”

“Don’t give me ideas.”

Richie throws his head back and laughs. “If you get a gaming room, I get a sex dungeon.”

“You wouldn’t even  _ use  _ a sex dungeon!”

“You don’t know what I'm getting up to!”

Eddie makes an incredulous sound, and he digs his toes into Richie’s side again. “I literally do? I’m the only fucking person you sleep with, dickweed!”

“Damn straight, baby,” Richie says. He sticks his wooden spoon into the sauce and raises it to Eddie’s mouth, so that Eddie can taste the sauce. Eddie complies easily. “What’s the verdict, chef?”

Eddie hums. “Good. Missing something.”

Richie nods as he drops the heat to simmer. “Sage. Thyme. I’ll add those once the noodles are cooked. Tell me more about your scary video game.”

“Okay, so the general plot of Resident Evil is that, like, this corporation was fucking with a bio-weapon and then created a bunch of creatures that are cannibalistic murderers,” Eddie starts. Richie loves to watch him like this. Animated, passionate. Arms waving as he talks about it, even if Richie doesn’t have a clue what the hell he’s saying. “Like, this was the very first story in the franchise when this game dropped, so everything since then has been based off of that. But this one takes the lore and approaches it in a different way that makes the fucking. Concept of it better, it makes it interesting, you know? And this is the first one that approaches the game like a linear storyline, so actions have a purpose, right? But it’s still got. It’s still got the crazy boss battles and these puzzle sections in between. You know? The stuff the series is famous for.”

“Right, yeah,” Richie agrees, even though he does not know. His noodle water starts to boil, so he reduces the temperature and pours the noodles in to start cooking.

Eddie fiddles with the game in his hands. He looks distant, suddenly. Far away from here. Richie puts a hand on Eddie’s thigh and squeezes, to bring him back whenever Eddie’s ready to find his way back. “It’s just nice,” Eddie says. “That something can, like. Come back from that. The last few releases kind of ruined the franchise, you know? But it can make a comeback.”

Richie’s heart constricts. He leans forward and kisses Eddie, as best as he can despite the weird angle. Eddie’s smile breaks the kiss. “Second chance for everything, right?”

“Right,” Eddie agrees faintly. “Besides, if this one is good, I can get the others to buy me any other releases that come out.”

“Hey, it’s not their fault that you got a divorce and moved into your own place and immediately bought every gaming console you could get your hands on,” Richie says. He drops his attention back to the stovetop, and moves his noodles off the burner before they can boil over. “Fuck.”

Eddie laughs. “Hey, I was newly divorced and out, I wanted to do something I wasn’t allowed to do in the house.”

“So buying out GameStop was your first choice?” Richie asks. He picks a noodle out of the water with the spoon and drops it back in when he sees it’s not done.

“Oh, you think you’re so fucking funny, but your jokes are almost as old as you are, dumbass,” Eddie says, and he reaches forward and sticks his hand into Richie’s back pocket, pulling him away from the stovetop and towards Eddie’s section of the counter.

“Noodles!” Richie protests, but Eddie slings his other arm around Richie’s shoulders and pulls him in for a smooth, easy kiss. Not one that’s going anywhere, necessarily. A kiss that says they’ll go somewhere later. After Richie’s fed them both dinner and Eddie’s met the first checkpoint on his game, or whatever it might be called. Eddie runs his tongue along Richie’s lip but doesn’t deepen it. Richie sighs and settles into it. He crosses his fingers and hopes that his sauce doesn’t burn as he settles his hand on Eddie’s hip and holds on tight.

Eddie’s smiling again when he pulls away. Sometimes Richie wants to crawl inside of Eddie’s smile and just. Live there. He thinks he’d be happy there. Maybe forever. The thought doesn’t scare him as much as he thinks it should.

“For the record, I’m very funny,” Richie tells him. “And if you burned my fucking pumpkin sauce because you wanted to smooch, takeout is coming out of  _ your  _ credit card, mister.”

“Smooch? Are you five?”

Richie kisses his nose and pulls away. Eddie makes a reluctant sound but lets him go regardless, so that Richie can check on the sauce and noodles. Luckily not burned. He removes the noodles from the stovetop and turns off the burner before turning to their sink to drain the noodles.

He has a moment to himself before Eddie plasters himself to Richie’s back, wrapping his arms around Richie’s middle and holding on tightly. His nose burrows between Richie’s shoulder blades.

“Good?” he asks, as he dumps the noodles in a strainer and rinses them with cold water.

“Mmhm,” Eddie mumbles. “Always good with you.”

Richie bites his lip to keep from grinning. They aren’t kids anymore; hell, they haven’t been for longer than he can remember. But sometimes Eddie says things that make him feel the way he did when he was a teenager. That put flutters in his stomach so strong he’s certain he’s a butterfly biosphere. “Careful, I might let that go to your head.”

“That’s okay,” Eddie tells him. “It can’t get any bigger.”

“Oh, I’m so dumping pumpkin sauce all over your game,” Richie threatens, and Eddie responds with a squawk and a tight grip of his arms around Richie’s waist, pinning him in place. They’re still laughing as they kiss again, and again.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/SPACERICHlE) if you want to come say hello!


End file.
